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TABELLA

TABELLA the voting tablet, by means of which votes were given
at Rome both in the assemblies and in the courts of law.

1. In the assemblies the votes were originally the answers of the individual
citizens to the magistrate who consulted the people as to their will and
pleasure (rogavitpopulumquidvellentjuberent). All evidence goes to show that the answers were
originally given vivâ voce to the
officials (rogatores) in attendance on the
presiding magistrate. In the case, of an election these officials pricked
each vote on the tablet which bore the name of the candidate in whose favour
it was given, who was said punctumferre, a
phrase which remained in use metaphorically after the custom on which it was
based had been abandoned (Hor. Epist 2.2, 99; Art.
Poet. 343). The result was then reported to the magistrate, who
declared elected (creavit) the candidates with
a majority. The only difficulty in accepting this view arises from the
meaning of the word suffragium: it can hardly
be doubted that this means originally a potsherd, a broken piece of tile
(Corssen, 1.397); but there is no evidence or probability that, voting by
this means was ever practised at Rome in the assembly; the name may have
been transferred from the use of the potsherd under other circumstances, but
of this there is no proof (Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr.
3.402, n. 1). Wunder's attempt (Var. Lect. p. clxvii. sqq.) to show that voting by pebbles (ψῆφοι) was in use, at least in passing or
rejecting proposed laws, has not found favour with scholars. His arguments
are derived entirely from passages in Dionysius, which only show that the
writer transferred to an earlier time the arrangements of his own day
(Mommsen, ib. 404, 2). The ballot was introduced first for the election of
magistrates, B.C. 139 [TABELLARIAE LEGES]. After this date each voter received one
tabella, on which were written the names,
or more probably (cf. Cic. proDomo, 43, 112)
only the initials, of the candidates; and apparently he voted by pricking
the tablet at the name of the favoured candidate. It is important to
distinguish the tabella by means of which the
citizens gave their votes, from the tabula or
list on which the custodes checked off the
votes, as they were taken out of the cistae and
reported. (Cf. Tyrrell on Q. Cic. de Pet.
Cons. 8）

In voting upon laws after the introduction of the ballot, each citizen was
provided with two tickets, one inscribed V. R.,
i.e. utirogas, for assent; the other A., i.e. antiquo,
“I approve the old law,” for rejection (cp. Cic. Att. 1.1. 3, 3). When Clodius desired to secure the failure of a rogatio, he contrived that no tickets marked V. R. should be issued (Cic. Att. 1.1. 4, 5). Walther's
view (Geschichte, 1.126, note 117), that when the Comitia
acted as a court the tablets were different, does not seem well supported
(cf. Lange, Röm. Alt.3 2.489).

2. In trials the judices were provided with three tabellae, one marked A., for
absolvo,
“I acquit;” the second with C., for
condemno,
“I condemn;” the third with N. L.,
for nonliquet,
“It is not clear to me.” The first of them was called tabellaabsolutoria, the latter tabella damnatorii (Suet. Aug. 33):
Cicero also calls the former litterasalutaris,
the latter litteratristis (pro
Mil. 6, 15). In Caesar (Caes. Civ.
3.83) we read that Domitius proposed that the senators who followed
Pompeius should on their return to Rome be given each three tabellae, by which they might pass a verdict upon
those who had remained at Rome: “unam fore tabellam, qui liberandos
omni periculo censerent; alteram qui capitis damnarent, tertiam qui
pecunia multarent.” A tabella marked with the letters L. D. is represented on a denarius of the Caelian
gens; and as C. Caelius Caldus introduced one of the tabellariaeleges, it has been plausibly suggested that these
letters denote Libero and Damno